Global Confusion (with apologies to The Temptations)

Some wonderful friends recently moved to southern Alaska (hint: still farther north than almost anywhere). This week the weather there has been warmer than in much of the continental US. They also had no snow, whereas something like 50% of the continental US did. A Facebook discussion combined with the sorry state of research management, political finagling, and poor and confusing reporting, inspired this. If you haven't heard the Temptations song "Ball of Confusion", go youtube it now. I'll wait.

Back? OK, read on with my version for today.

 

People running out, people running in
Why? Because of the clothes on their skin
Sweat, freeze, fry but you can't decide
Don't know who's lyin or tellin me the truth
Vote for me and I'll set you free
Babble on, brother, babble on

Well, the only people talking real solutions ain't in power
And it seems nobody's interested in the truth but the flowers
Natural causes, carbon footprints, solar flares, automation
Correlation, determination, demonstration, disintegration
Aggravation, humiliation, obligation to my nation

Global confusion
Oh yeah, that's what the weather is today
Woo, hey, hey

The sale of votes is at an all time high
Leaders walking round with their heads in the sky
The cities blacked out in the summer time
And oh, the beat goes on

Evolution, revolution, price control, sell your soul
Shooting rockets to the moon, World economies grow too soon
Politicians say carbon taxes will solve everything
And the band played on

So, round and around and around we go
Where the world's headed, said nobody knows
Oh, great Googamooga
Can't you hear me talking to you?

Just a global confusion
Oh yeah, that's what the weather is today
Woo, hey, hey

Fear in the air, tension everywhere
Ocean level rising fast, racing to consume the gas
And it's not even safe to live on an Indian reservation
And the band played on

Eve of destruction, fracking deduction, pollution inspectors, solar collectors
Wind turbines in demand, population out of hand, Maldives, tornadoes
Hippies moving to the hills, people all over the world are shouting
'Climate change!?' and the band played on

Great Googamooga
Can't you hear me talking to you?

It's a global confusion
That's what the weather is today, hey, hey
Let me hear ya, let me hear ya, let me hear ya

Sayin' global confusion
That's what the weather is today, hey, hey
Let me hear ya, let me hear ya
Let me hear ya, let me hear ya, let me hear ya
Sayin' global confusion

Brazen Shore

On a brazen shore
 In southern Alabama
  Thousands of years ago
   Where false idols fell

In a barren waste
 By a rocky cairn
  By a boat's dried ruins
   By a sun-bleached skull

There washed the waves
 Of a long dead storm
  Which spilt the blood
   Of a kinder soul

Than any now walked
 That wilted beach
  With greasy kelp
   And slimy fishheads

When a ray of sun
 Broke the clouds' dark pallor
  And a child walked free
   For a moment.

It was a start.
 Beginning of the end.
  End of the beginning.
   The death of death.

 

Copyright 1989, 1994, 2013 Miles O'Neal, Austin, TX. All rights reserved.

Mom's Disease - Humor

Mom had this disease, a speech impediment which caused her to say hysterical, dumb, or embarrassing things. She explained it this way: "My tongue gets wrapped around my eye teeth, and I can't see what I'm saying."

A lot of things she said cracked us up, worried us, or embarrassed us. Sometimes all at once. I doubt most of them were original, but the way she used them, they were hers. Even during my teenage years, after I'd heard them all a thousand times, they would still crack me up. Even in front of my friends.

My brother, Bill, recalls, (you'll have to ask him how fondly) her saying, "I brought you into this world and I can take you out." I don't recall her saying that to me. Draw from this what you will.

Most double mastectomy breast cancer survivors don't tend to make a lot of jokes about it. Bill reminded me that Mom did.

"I was standing in a group (at Publix) showing off some new meatballs and my boob dropped onto the floor."
("Who else could say that with a straight face?" -Bill)
He forgot to mention the second part. "As I bent over to pick it up, apologizing to the embarrassed man in front of me, the other one fell out!"

The one that always made me nervous was the one she used if she owed me something, such as if she were a couple of bucks short at the grocery store and borrowed it from me.

"Mom, may I have my two dollars?"
"What two dollars?"
"You borrowed it from me a couple of days ago at Safeway, remember?"
"Don't worry. I'll owe you til I die before I'll cheat you out of it." "..."

Even when it made me nervous, the way she said it, so innocently, so sincerely, so tauntingly (all at once), usually made me smile.

She would have done well on stage.

Dad has a great sense of humor as well, but Mom articulated hers a lot more. We kids all ended up with it. When our self described "Evil stepmother" (who I lovingly call Mom now that Mom #1 is gone)-- a wonderful counselor and hospice manager-- called us together to help us prepare for Mom's death (her 412th (whatever) bout with cancer was finally claiming her physical life), it rapidly degenerated into a joke fest, discussing things such as bronzing Mom and standing her up over her grave, and what her pose should be (picking up her rubber boob after it fell out?). Wink just stared at us at first, then relaxed. We might not cope normally, but we'd cope.

And we have.

As I finished writing this, I realized that Mom kept her promise. Over my childhood and teenage years she probably borrowed $20 - $30 ($50 to $100 in today's money) from me. She owed me til she died, but she never cheated me out of it.